This wonderful guitar is made by Maestro Manuel de la Chica, regarded as the most important guitar maker of Granada. The style and sound quality of his guitars has been often compared to Maestro Marcelo Barbero’s guitars, as they worked together on some guitars Santos Hernández left unfinished when passing away.
His guitars are recognized and praised by collectors, guitar makers and guitarists all around the world. His guitars were played by Andrés Segovia, Celedonio Romero, Luis Sanchez, Manuel Cano, Sebastian Maroto just to name a few. He also attracted a number of disciples including Antonio Lopez, Francisco Manuel Diaz and Pedro Maldonado.
His guitars are rare as his out put was small. He certainly didn't build more than 15 guitars a year. The demand for his work was always greater than supply and he retired in 1973 due to poor health condition.
The woods of this guitar are extraordinarily good. Manuel de la Chica had the opportunity to acquire old Cuban mahogany from a 16th century church interior. This enabled him to build many of his guitars with the highest quality mahogany. The german spruce top has got a straight and even grain and is of highest possible quality too.
665 mm scale length and 54 mm nut width.
It is a pleasantly light guitar, finely built with a nicely coloured rosette, a straigt forward design and a smooth and fluid headstock shape. This guitar has a wonderful sound, the playability is incredibly comfortable and the guitar responds to the finest touch. It has a lyrical, singing quality to the sound and the bases are thick and well present. It can be very loud with a piercing volume and still it retains a charming tone. It is a truly graceful instrument with a fascinating sound.
The guitar is comfortable for both hands adjusted with a low action. It has a straight neck and good frets. The condition is very nice too, with only the center seam reglued, some minor crack repair and the french polish professionally refreshed.
